According to the French wine trade body FEVS (Féderation des Exportateurs de Vins & Spiritueux), in a story reported by the British Wine magazine Decanter, French wine exports in 2013 were down by 3.1% in volume. (The sales value was just 0.1% less.)

Suntory Holdings Ltd. tried to cast aside any lingering doubts that its $13.6 billion acquisition of Beam Inc. is overpriced, saying it will successfully capitalize on the overseas brand recognition of the U.S. whiskey maker as it transforms into a global spirits player.

Fourteen months into a historic drought, with reservoirs running low and the Sierra snowpack 27 percent of normal, a growing number of Californians are wondering: Why isn't everyone being forced to ration?

When President Barack Obama travelled to Fresno, California on Friday, he waded into a decades-long water fight that is pitting farmers against fish. More than that, however, he is confronting a wider public policy debate that goes back at least a century - over the environment, industry, and the role of government.

Besieged by drought and desperate for new sources of water, California towns are ramping up plans to convert salty ocean water into drinking water to quench their long-term thirst. The plants that carry out the high-tech "desalination" process can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but there may be few other choices for the parched state.

As President Barack Obama and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack got a personal look at California's drought-ravaged Central Valley on Feb. 14, USDA and other federal agencies prepared to speed disaster aid to the state.

There have been made times when we stood atop a rocky mountain overlooking a verdant vineyard and wondered aloud what inspired a grape grower to choose such a rugged terrain for his crop. Boulders had to be moved, packed ground dynamited and tractor equipment destroyed to get a crop that, at best, was often just good.

Tucked away in the Goldridge and Altamont soils along Vine Hill Road in Sebastopol, Dehlinger Winery has been quietly questing for quality since 1974, when a former pre-med student and trained enologist named Tom Dehlinger, with job experience at Beringer, Hanzell and Dry Creek Vineyard, bought an old apple orchard in the Russian River Valley and made his first set of wines, starting with chardonnay, zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon.

A recent report by the Sweden-based whistle blower Swedwatch finds that Finland's favourite wines are being produced under questionable circumstances in foreign vineyards. Local NGOs are calling on the state-owned alcohol monopoly Alko to improve its buying practices.

Winemaker Paul Hobbs is swapping comfort in California for a dormitory-style bed in his native New York state as he prepares the ground for a Finger Lakes Riesling he believes will rival Germany's best.

If you walk into a restaurant wine cellar and see a big room full of expensive stuff that hasn't sold, trust me that you are viewing it in the same way as those many restaurant operators who have forgone large wine programs.